1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for disposal of biodegradable waste material by depositing the material in a trench cut into the soil, and backfilling the trench with the borrow soil while mixing with the deposited material. The treatment provides the dual advantage of disposing of waste material and improving the quality of the soil.
Disposal of vast amounts of solid biodegradable waste such as newspaper and other cellulosic materials poses a significant environmental problem. For example, although some paper products may be recycled, only a small fraction of generated paper is handled in this manner. Most paper products continue to be disposed of in landfills, consuming a large proportion of the available landfill volume and hence contributing to their premature exhaustion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Soil compaction and crusting, and the resultant increase in runoff, are well recognized problems in agriculture, which arise from conventional tilling methods of farming. One solution that has been proposed to increase water infiltration into these soil surfaces has been vertical mulching. It has been reported that runoff may be reduced using this process which includes the steps of cutting a trench in the soil, and filling or stuffing the trench with chopped crop residues such as hay and straw to keep the trench open over an extended period of time. See Spain and McCune (Agronomy Journal, 48:192-193, 1956), Curley et al. (Vertical Mulching, University of California Agricultural Extension Service publication, 8 pages), Clark and Hore (Transactions of the ASAE, 1965, pages 592-593), and Saxton (Proceedings of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference on Crop Production With Conservation in the 80's, December, 1980, pages 42-49). Devices for vertical mulching have also been described, which include a subsoil chisel for cutting the trench, and a mechanism for filling the trench with the crop residues. See Finn (U.S. Pat. No. 2,949,871), Bonomo et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 2,936,838), and Curley et al. (ibid). However, in these vertical mulching processes, filling the trench with the crop residues is essential in order to maintain in an open condition and prevent it from closing.